National Treasure 3 Is Real, Says Director Jon Turteltaub

After years of speculation and a short-lived television spinoff, the big-screen franchise built around Nicolas Cage's relic-chasing historian Ben Gates appears to be genuinely moving forward. Director Jon Turteltaub offered the most concrete confirmation yet that a third National Treasure feature is in active development — and that the pieces necessary to make it are finally in place.

Turteltaub Goes On Record

Speaking at a live taping of the National Treasure Hunt podcast in Philadelphia, Turteltaub broke what he described as his own silence on the subject. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the director told the audience that the project is "finally real" and that a finished script now exists — one both he and Disney feel confident in. He acknowledged the inherent uncertainty of Hollywood development with characteristic candor, noting that the film's fate is tied inextricably to Cage's continued involvement; without the star, there simply is no third chapter. Disney declined to offer an official comment, and no casting announcements have been made, but the director's public statement marks a meaningful shift from years of vague optimism to something more tangible.

The Franchise in Context

It's worth remembering just how commercially potent this series was at its peak. The original National Treasure, released in 2004, assembled a surprisingly robust ensemble — Harvey Keitel, Jon Voight, Diane Kruger, Sean Bean, Justin Bartha, and Christopher Plummer — around Cage's bookish, idealistic Gates, and the film earned roughly $347 million globally. For a live-action Disney adventure that wasn't based on a pre-existing intellectual property, that was a significant achievement. The 2007 sequel, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, expanded the world further with the additions of Helen Mirren, Ed Harris, Bruce Greenwood, and Ty Burrell, and outperformed its predecessor with nearly $459 million at the worldwide box office.

The appetite for the original films has clearly not dissipated in the intervening years — National Treasure is quietly dominating Hulu's charts right now, a testament to how effectively these adventure films hold up as crowd-pleasing entertainment.

The Spinoff Detour

Not every expansion of the franchise landed with equal force. National Treasure: Edge of History, a Disney+ series that debuted in 2022, attempted to introduce a younger generation of treasure hunters to the mythology while bringing back Bartha and Keitel in supporting roles and adding Catherine Zeta-Jones to the mix. Despite solid promotional attention, the show was canceled after a single season — a stumble that likely reinforced the creative team's desire to return the story to the feature-film format where it originally thrived.

Cage and the Weight of the Role

For Cage himself, Ben Gates represents one of the more accessible and commercially mainstream characters in a filmography that has grown increasingly eclectic and adventurous. The actor has spent much of the past decade navigating a fascinating second act — from gonzo cult fare to more considered dramatic work — and returning to Gates would mark a notable recalibration toward mainstream studio filmmaking. Those tracking his career closely know the range involved; his abandoned Superman role remains one of cinema's great what-ifs, and his work in the Ghost Rider films demonstrated his willingness to commit fully to genre material, however uneven the results. Both Ghost Rider films are now free to stream, making this a reasonable moment to revisit exactly what kind of blockbuster energy Cage brings when given the right vehicle.

What Comes Next

With a script that has cleared Disney's internal approval process and a director willing to speak publicly about the project's momentum, National Treasure 3 has moved beyond wishful thinking. The practical realities of production — casting, scheduling, financing — remain to be worked through, and Hollywood development has a long history of promising projects that never reach a camera. But Turteltaub's willingness to go on record, in front of a live audience, suggests this is something more durable than a development rumor. Fans of Cage's particular brand of earnest, history-obsessed adventure have reason, at last, to be cautiously optimistic.